komponisto comments on Open thread, July 29-August 4, 2013 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: David_Gerard 29 July 2013 10:26PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 30 July 2013 01:03:27PM *  1 point [-]

English tip: the possessive ending " 's " carries an implicit "the".

(Except in constructs like “girls' school” or “a ten minutes' walk”.)

Comment author: komponisto 30 July 2013 04:34:10PM 0 points [-]

You're right about "girls' school", but "a ten minutes' walk" is wrong (should be "a ten-minute walk" or "ten minutes' walk").

Comment author: [deleted] 31 July 2013 09:46:48AM *  1 point [-]

Thanks. I myself am a non-native speaker.

[Note to self: I should re-read the relevant chapter in my English grammar when I get back home. Meanwhile, I'll look at the overview here.]

(Semantically, “ten minutes' walk” still means ‘a ten-minute walk’ rather than ‘the ten-minute walk’, but your point in reply to shminux was about syntax not semantics anyway.)

Comment author: komponisto 31 July 2013 08:27:25PM 0 points [-]

(Semantically, “ten minutes' walk” still means ‘a ten-minute walk’ rather than ‘the ten-minute walk’, but your point in reply to shminux was about syntax not semantics anyway.)

The "proof of synonymy" looks like this:

ten minutes' walk = (the walk) of (ten minutes) = a (walk of ten minutes) = a ten-minute walk

...the second "equality" being where semantics is invoked.